Republican debate tonight. Couldn’t watch it because pressing projects. . .well, pressed. But the 8 or 10 eminent pundits live blogging it over at The Corner were all praising Fred Thompson’s performance to the heavens.

 And Jim Geraghty over at the Campaign Spot recapped the debate like this:

Tonight, Fred Reminded Me of Roy Hobbs.

Winner: Thompson. This performance was so commanding, I wanted his last answer to echo back to the lights in the back of the auditorium, blow out all the lamps and spotlights, for the theme to “the Natural” to play, and for him to trot around the stage in slow motion while sparks showered down in the background.

So…a good night for Fred then. Hopefully it will translate into a lot of South Carolina evangelicals voting with the heads rather than their identities.

 

 I have seen lots of joking and jesting about Fred Thompson’s so-called trophy wife, Jeri, who is 24 years younger than Fred and, I suppose, relatively easy on the eyes.  But I had never heard her speak until yesterday when I was watching Fox News’ “Big Idea” while on a treadmill at the gym.

 The woman is sharp, articulate and quite conservative in her own right. Fred should get out of the way and let her do more talking.

Later on, I played the interview for my wife and then asked her if she thought she had just listened to airhead, arm-candy as Jeri is being portrayed. She was incensed that people were talking about her that way.

Here’s the interview. Have a look.

. . . the other candidates will be focusing their fire on him. So, I think it’s time to bring the McCain Temperament Modulator device back out.

Boy, 10, Glues Himself to Bed to Avoid School

First, Canadian Muslim groups drag Mark Steyn before their ridiculous Human Rights Commission because they were deeply offended by his assertion that Muslim groups would be likely to drag people like him before silly commissions when offended.

Today, I learn that liberals are so worked up by Jonah Goldberg’s new book, Liberal Fascism, that they are behaving like jackbooted fascist brownshirts. . . who are liberal.

This afternoon, I see that some Ron Paul-loving shadowy militia-thug, soldier-of-fortune type is subtly threatening NRO with violence and OKC-style terrorism for linking to a New Republic story that. . .wait for it. . . suggests that Paul used to have a constituency of shadowy militia types.

Ahh, to be so blissfully non-self-aware.

By the way, I used to receive a couple of those Ron Paul newsletters that were the focus of that New Republic piece. They were among the “gold bug” publications I mentioned in this post. And I see Paul is disavowing them, saying he didn’t write them.

In the unlikely event you were wondering.

If Marxism/Communism hadn’t proven to be an utter, abject failure economically, Soviet architects had some kicking projects planned. Stuff like the above. And this.

Of course, it was such a miserable flop at generating wealth, the Soviet’s built nothing but soulless concrete bunkers with all their good architecture having been built under the Czars.

See more of these amazing renderings of unbuilt Soviet buildings here, at the “Unrealised Moscow” site. Very, very cool.

There is a lot—a whole lot—that Ron Paul advocates that I agree with. So much in fact, it’s easier to mention where I differ. Paul’s true-believer libertarian purist backers were dismayed to see his new anti-illegal immigration ad today, but I thought it was fantastic.

Among those differences I mentioned, here’s two:

Paul’s neo-isolationism—Sure, we’d be more popular in the U.N. and save a lot of money if we just withdrew, but I don’t think we’re living in world where that’s possible. I sure don’t think we’d like the one that would result.

His monetary reform—This is almost an obsession with Paul. He mentions in constantly. I know where he’s coming from when I hear “fiat money” decried and the Federal reserve system condemned. I used to get all those gold bug newsletters.

 The newletter writers were all Ludwig Von Mises Institute types and they all had gold coins and bullion to sell. The also all were predicting imminent economic apocolypse fueled in large part because America’s money had been taken off the gold standard and the Federal Reserve’s house of cards was going to collapse at any moment. This was 1985, ’86, ’87. But in these newsletters it was always 1929 all over again.

Like the broken clock that is right twice a day. Their predictions of an eventual spike in the price of gold has finally come to pass—two decades later.

Supposing I’d had $10k to invest back in 1986 (which I didn’t), how would I have faired in gold bullion vs. an S&P 500 index fund?

Gold was about $400 an ounce in January of ’86, so I could have purchased roughly 25 oz. of bullion.

A share price of an S&P 500 index fund on January 1, 1986 was $211.78, so I could have purchased 47 shares.

The value of these investments today would be:

25 oz. Gold Bullion @ $847.70  =              $21,442

47 Shares S&P 500 Index @ $1411.63 = $66,346 (with no dividend reinvestment. Reinvisting dividends would have made the return much, much greater.)

To be fair, the gold was and is supposed to be a hedge in the event of that imminent economic collapse and ensuing breakdown in social order that’s been just around the corner for 20 years now.

I’m not an economist. I’m just a simple unfrozen caveman writer. But it seems to me that David Frum has written a pretty devestating take down of the whole “fiat money” is the devil argument. Read it here.

It’s clear and compelling. But I’d be happy for someone to point out any flaws in his logic or facts. Otherwise, a key component of Ron Paul’s appeal for a lot of people is the thing that is flawed.

Here’s some video of what can only be described as  “mob” of angry Ron Paul supporters chasing Sean Hannity’s car down the street.

Here.

Yes, I know every campaign attracts its share of eccentrics, nut jobs and ne’er do wells. But some attract a lot more than others. 

 Andthere is something about the crowd Paul has energized that feels a lot like the folks that put Jesse “The Body” Ventura in the governor’s mansion in Minnesota (for one disastrous term) or the ones here in Texas who wanted to make Kinky Friedman govorner.

Of course, there is no comparison between the qualifications of Dr. Paul and those two novelty candidates. But I’m not talking about the candidates. I’m talking about those most visible and vocal in their support. The aroma is very familiar.